


Together

by LibraryMage



Series: Break Your Chains [2]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Autistic Character, Autistic Ezra Bridger, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Past Child Abuse, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-01
Updated: 2017-07-01
Packaged: 2018-11-21 21:33:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11366055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibraryMage/pseuds/LibraryMage
Summary: Ezra and Kanan are both having trouble adjusting to their new situation.AU rewrite of "Rise of the Old Masters."  CW for references to past child abuse and past (canonical) character death.





	1. Chapter 1

Fear.  Anger.  Pain.  Guilt.  Grief.  It was all Ezra felt anymore.  That first night he’d spent on the _Ghost_ , he’d just been numb, still having trouble processing what had happened.  But the following day, it had all hit him at once, and since then, he had felt like he was being crushed under the weight of it all.  He’d thought he was hiding it well, but he kept seeing the others shooting concerned looks at him and at each other when they thought he wasn’t paying attention.

Since Ezra had joined the crew of the _Ghost_ , Kanan had been testing him, assessing his abilities whenever they had the time in between missions.  Outside of those missions and training, Ezra avoided Kanan as much as possible.  He knew he wasn’t living up to the Jedi’s expectations and didn’t want to give him a chance to say it.  Since joining the crew, Ezra had been constantly distracted in a way he never had been before.  He couldn’t focus on anything and it felt like his connection to the Force had somehow gotten weaker.  Ezra could sense Kanan’s growing frustration, and he was sure he was the cause of it.  He figured staying out of Kanan’s way was the best thing for both of them.  He knew that at some point, Kanan would take that frustration out on him and at least this way he could try to delay that as long as he could.

On some level, Ezra just wished Kanan would hit him or threaten him already and get it over with.  It wasn’t that he _wanted_ to get hurt, but he knew it would happen eventually, and waiting for it, not knowing when it would come, was agony.  And that constant nervousness made it even harder than it already was for him to stay focused on whatever Kanan or Hera needed him to do.  He was making more mistakes every day and he knew it was only a matter of time before he faced consequences for it.

* * *

 

Kanan knew Ezra was avoiding him, and some part of him actually welcomed it.  He didn’t regret his decision to recruit the kid.  He knew he’d done the right thing and if he had to do it all over again, he’d make the same choice.

Still, he knew that the less time he and Ezra spent around each other, the less chance there was of Ezra realizing just how lost Kanan was in this whole situation.  He didn’t like admitting it, and so far hadn’t to anyone but himself, but he didn’t know what he was doing.  Not as a teacher training a potential Jedi, and definitely not as a Jedi trying to save a former Sith apprentice from the Dark Side.

Ezra had so much anger burning inside of him, and he was good at using it as a brutal, efficient weapon.  It drove most of his actions -- the ones that weren’t driven by fear, anyway.  And it was so deeply a part of him that Kanan didn’t know how to even begin helping him through it.  Yet another thing Kanan hadn’t been prepared for before he’d made this choice.

He always worried that Ezra would sense his frustration and anger and think it was directed at him.  So Kanan was secretly glad Ezra was keeping his distance.

* * *

 

For a while, they both thought this system of working together during missions and training and avoiding each other beyond that was working out alright.  That illusion began to slip away three weeks after Ezra had joined the crew.

Hera had taken the _Ghost_ into a low orbit over Lothal, and Kanan had brought Ezra out on top of the ship to see how well Ezra could defend himself in a riskier environment than the ones they had found themselves operating in so far.

Ezra’s determination to do better this time turned out to be his biggest problem.  With each projectile Chopper threw at him that he failed to block, Ezra grew more and more frustrated and made even more mistakes as he scrambled to make up for his previous ones.  It had ended with Ezra losing track of how much solid ground he had left behind him and falling from the ship.  He’d tried to use the Force to break his fall, but before he got anywhere near the ground, Kanan began to pull him back up.

As soon as Ezra was pulled back onto the ship, Kanan was climbing down the ladder from the upper hatch to meet him.

“You weren’t focused,” Kanan said as he dropped to the floor and turned to face Ezra.

_Difficult to focus when I’m falling to my death_ , Ezra thought, but knew better than to say.  He just stared at the floor, silently waiting for whatever Kanan would say or do next.

He wanted to explain to Kanan that he was _trying_.  He wanted to tell him everything that was going on in his head, making it impossible to live up to what Kanan expected him, what he expected of _himself_.  But he couldn’t.  Even if he could, he didn’t know how.

Ezra was saved by Sabine’s voice calling to Kanan and Hera.  Kanan brushed past him and Ezra looked up just in time to see the look of sympathy on Hera’s face.  He looked away immediately.  The last thing he wanted right now was anyone’s pity.  As Hera walked past him, her hand gently touched his shoulder, trying to silently reassure him.

“Kanan --” he started to say as he followed Hera into the common space.  He was cut off by Sabine motioning for him to stay quiet.  The HoloNews transmission she’d been watching showed a Mirialan woman being led somewhere by two stormtroopers.

_“One of the Republic’s greatest peacekeepers, Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, is alive,”_ a man’s voice was saying.  Kanan and Hera glanced at each other, eyes wide with shock, and leaned in closer, their attention completely on the transmission.

_“She’s been imprisoned unlawfully somewhere in the Stygeon system.  As citizens, we demand the Emperor produce Master Unduli and grant her a fair trial before the entire --”_

The man’s words were cut off by static and seconds later, the regular Holonet transmission was playing, and Sabine switched it off.

“This Luminara,” Ezra said, looking back at Kanan, “you knew her?”

“I met her,” Kanan said.  “Once.  There’ve always been rumors she survived the Clone Wars, but they never came with a specific location before.”

He looked back at Hera.  “We can’t pass this up,” he said.

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Hera said with a smile.  “I’ll set course for the Stygeon system.

Kanan turned back to the others.

“The rest of you, prep for an op.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Welcome to the Spire on Stygeon Prime,” Sabine said as a projected image of the prison appeared between the assembled members of the crew, “the only Imperial detainment center in the Stygeon system.”

Sabine picked up on the flash of recognition on Ezra’s face at the sound of the name.

“You know this place?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said.  “My master --” he stopped, cutting himself off and clenching his jaw in frustration.  It was a hard habit to break.  “ _Maul_ was imprisoned there once.”

“How’d he escape?” Kanan asked.

“With help,” Ezra said.  “From Death Watch.”

He felt a spike of discomfort from Sabine, but she kept her face deliberately blank.

“Doesn’t help us much,” she said.  “And one escape aside, this place is impregnable.”

“That’s never stopped us before,” Kanan pointed out.

“We’ve never faced anything like this,” Sabine said, admiration in her voice, whether for the prison itself or the challenge of breaking into it, no one could tell.  “It’s a real work of art.  Blast proof, ray-shielded, protected by anti-ship weapons, TIE fighters, and short and long-range scanners.”

“We can fool the scanners,” Hera said.

“Maybe,” Sabine said.  “But that just leaves an army of troopers and guard posts on all the walls.”  She sat back in her seat, her eyes narrowing as she looked at the schematics in front of her.

“Look,” she said, “even if we could get into this beauty, the hard part’s getting out, ‘cause, you know, it’s a prison.”

“What about going in low and sneaking onto this landing platform?” Ezra asked, pointing out the potential entrance on the schematics.

Sabine shook her head.  “Platform has a heavy trooper presence and reinforced blast doors,” she said.  “Impossible to get in or out that way.”

“Here,” Kanan said, indicating an entrance that was barely even visible on the map.  “There’s only room for a couple guards.  We take them down, make our way to the upper-level isolation cells, free Luminara, and come back out the way we came in.”

Chopper whirred a comment in binary.

“Yeah,” Sabine said.  “You’d have to be crazy to try that lousy plan.”

“Let’s hope the Empire thinks so, too,” Kanan said.

* * *

 

As the ship dropped out of hyperspace and began to descend toward the rocky landscape of Stygeon Prime, five of the six members of the crew crowded into the _Phantom._   Chopper grumbled at the idea of being left behind.

“Sorry, Chop,” Zeb said.  “We just don’t need your damaged logic circuits on this one.”

As the _Phantom_ detached, Chopper said something else, probably an insult to Zeb or another comment about how this plan wasn’t going to work.

“Thirty seconds,” Hera told them as they approached the prison.  “Good luck.”

“Luck?” Zeb repeated.  “We’re gonna need a miracle.”

“Here are three,” Sabine said.  She held three grenades in her hands, passing one each to Zeb and Ezra and holding one back for herself.

As the _Phantom_ leveled off above the guard post and the hatch opened, Kanan leapt from the ship with Zeb, Sabine, and Ezra behind him.

* * *

 

Actually getting inside the prison turned out to be pretty simple.  It was almost too easy, in Ezra’s opinion.  But they made it inside, only attracting attention from a few stormtroopers who were now dead either on the guard post or the mountainside below it.

Once they were inside was when the problems started.  The first hitch in the plan came when Sabine rushed to a computer terminal to find the Jedi’s exact location.

“Where’s Master Unduli?” Kanan asked.

“Detention block CC01,” Sabine read.  “Isolation cell 0169.”

“They have isolation cells on the lower levels?” Kanan asked, looking over her shoulder.  “We planned off outdated schematics.”

“What does that mean?” Ezra asked.

“It means the plan changes.”

“You got a backup plan?” Zeb asked him.

“Figuring one out right now,” he said, leading the way into the lift.  “Zeb, Sabine, you’re coming along.”

“Weren’t we supposed to hold our escape route here?” Zeb asked.

“Now the turbolift _is_ our escape route.  Let’s go.”

Neither Zeb or Sabine argued, though once they were inside the lift, Ezra heard Sabine mutter “his plan gets worse all the time.”

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t change it again,” Zeb said.

“I’m standing right here,” Kanan pointed out, rolling his eyes at the two of them.

“We know,” Sabine said.  Her helmet covered her face, but they could all hear her sarcastic smile in her voice.

The lift came to a halt and Kanan glanced back at Ezra.  Ezra gave a small nod, letting Kanan know he was ready for what they were about to do.

“Maintain comm silence and whatever you do, hold this lift,” Kanan said as he stepped into the hallway, Ezra close behind him.

Two stormtroopers turned the corner ahead of them and, seeing Kanan and Ezra, raised their blasters.  Kanan used the Force to wrench the weapons from their hands and drag the two troopers toward him, knocking both of them out with sharp blows to the head.

“You’re really not messing around tonight,” Ezra said as he stepped around one of the unconscious soldiers.

“There’s a lot more at stake than you realize,” Kanan told him.  He turned and led the way down the corridor.  Ezra followed.

After a few moments, Kanan stopped and motioned for Ezra to do the same.  Ezra could sense the two guards just around the corner.

“Wait here,” Kanan whispered.  Ezra nodded and Kanan stepped out from where the two of them had been hiding and quietly approached the stormtroopers.

“Shouldn’t you be guarding the Jedi’s cell?” Kanan said.  “It’s on the next level.”

Ezra could feel something shift in both stormtroopers’ minds as Kanan spoke.

“It’s on the next level,” one of them said, his voice distant.

“You better get going,” Kanan said.  The stormtrooper repeated his words and both soldiers walked away, moving right past Ezra and not even seeming to notice him.

Ezra stepped out into the hallway, staring at Kanan, a little in awe.  What he’d just done was so subtle, not at all like what Maul had taught him about overriding someone’s will and bending them to your own.

Kanan opened the door and entered the cell, Ezra just a couple of steps behind him.

The Mirialan woman they’d seen in the transmission sat alone in the cell.  She looked up as they entered, but she didn’t really seem to be looking _at_ them.

“Is it really her?” Ezra asked.

“Yes,” Kanan said, though he sounded uncertain, “but something’s wrong.”

She stood up and took a few steps toward them.

“Master?” Kanan asked.  She didn’t seem to hear him.  She turned away and walked toward a corner of the cell.  It was then that they saw the body, preserved in a coffin.  What Kanan now realized was only a projection faded into it.

“What happened to her?” Ezra asked.  “I don’t understand.”

“No?” a voice said from behind him.  Kanan and Ezra turned to see a Pau’an in black armor standing in the doorway of the cell.  “It doesn’t seem that complicated,” he said as he stepped through the door and it closed behind him, trapping them inside.

“I am the Inquisitor,” he said.  He ignited the lightsaber in his hand, the blade’s red glow filling the room.  “Welcome.”

Kanan stepped forward, making sure Ezra was behind him, and activated his own saber.

“I’m afraid Master Luminara died with the Republic,” the Inquisitor said.  “But her bones continue to serve the Empire, luring the last Jedi to their ends.”

Ezra grabbed his comm.  “Spectre Three, come in,” he said.  “It’s a trap.”

His words were met with nothing but static.  Their comms were being jammed.

“There will be no reinforcements.”

Kanan lunged at him.  The Inquisitor deflected his attack easily, but that didn’t deter Kanan for a second.  Still, the Inquisitor blocked and dodged each strike from Kanan, seeming almost bored.  Ezra knew he could have killed the Jedi easily, but he was toying with him, like a cat that releases a mouse only to catch it again.

Ezra stayed back, knowing that in a space as tight as this, jumping into the fight would only make it more dangerous for him and Kanan.  Suddenly he remembered the grenade Sabine had given him.  He glanced over his shoulder at the door, trying to judge whether he could blast it open without killing Kanan and himself in the process.

He hit the switch on the charge and set it next to the door.

“Kanan!” he shouted.  Kanan turned to him just in time to see what Ezra had done and brace himself before the blast went off.

There was a _crash_ and the cell shook as the door was blown free of the wall.  Ezra could barely see through the smoke.  He felt someone grab his arm and pull him up off the floor and instinctively knew it was Kanan.  Ezra stumbled a little as he followed the Jedi out into the hallway, the smoke stinging at his eyes.

The two of them began to run as soon as they were clear of the debris from the blast, the Inquisitor not far behind them, and gaining on them fast.  Kanan stopped, pushing Ezra behind him as he turned to face the Inquisitor again.

“Are you paying attention, boy?” the Inquisitor said, his eyes locking onto Ezra.  “The Jedi are dead.  But there is another path.  The Dark Side.”

Ezra smiled and switched on his lightsaber.  The Inquisitor’s eyes showed just the faintest hint of surprise at the sight of the red blade.

“Tried that once,” Ezra said.  “It didn’t work out.”

He launched himself at the Inquisitor, only to be thrown backward.  He slammed into the wall and hit the ground.

“Do you really think you can save the boy?” he heard the Inquisitor ask, his focus back on Kanan.  “For his sake, surrender.”

“I’m not making deals with you,” Kanan growled as Ezra pushed himself to his feet.

“Then we’ll let him make one, shall we?”

The Inquisitor pushed out one hand, throwing Kanan back, past Ezra.

“Your master cannot save you, boy,” the Inquisitor said.  “He’s unfocused and undisciplined.”

“Then we’re perfect for each other,” Ezra shot back, raising his lightsaber, daring the other man to attack.  The Inquisitor took Ezra’s silent challenge.

Ezra dodged his attack, ducking under the red blade and shoving himself off the wall to land behind the Inquisitor.

“I do so admire your persistence,” the Inquisitor said as he turned to face Ezra.  “Ready to die?”  He charged at Ezra, his blade making a glowing red arc through the air.  Ezra raised his own blade.  He was ready for a fight, but he wasn’t going to die today.

“No!” Kanan shouted.  Ezra saw the Inquisitor freeze as Kanan grabbed hold of him through the Force.  A second later, the Pau’an was lifted off the ground and slammed against the ceiling.

“Run!” Kanan said.  Ezra did.

“Let’s go,” Kanan said, grabbing his lightsaber from where it had fallen a few feet away from him.

As the two of them ran down the hallway, they saw Sabine and Zeb turn a corner just ahead of them.

“Come on!” Sabine called.  “This way!”

“You figured out it was a trap?” Kanan asked as they followed her.

“Yeah,” she said.  “Luminara?”

“Long gone,” Kanan told her.  “Our new exit?”

“Landing platform.”

“Thought it was impossible to get out that way.”

“Let’s hope the Empire thinks so, too.”

* * *

 

The main hangar was empty when they reached it.  It was deliberate.  All the stormtroopers would be on the other side of the large door that led to the landing platform, waiting for them.  They all knew they were going to have to fight their way out, and it wasn’t going to be easy.  And that was assuming they could even get the door open.  Sabine tried and found herself shut out of the system, unable to access even something as simple as a lock.

“Ezra,” Kanan said, gesturing to the door.  “Together.”

Ezra nodded and stood beside Kanan.  The two of them reached out together and for just a second, Ezra felt his mind brush against Kanan’s.  In those few seconds, they weren’t operating as two separate people with the same goal, but as a unit, as one.  And slowly, the door began to open.

There was a moment of quiet.  The stormtroopers hadn’t expected that they’d be able to get out of the hangar they’d been boxed into.  But that was over quickly and within seconds, the troopers raised their weapons.

The four of them ran into the oncoming blaster fire, Kanan and Ezra taking the lead, deflecting blaster bolts with their lightsabers, Sabine and Zeb just behind them, returning fire.  Sabine crouched behind a crate and Ezra and Zeb moved to cover her as she got her comm working again.

“Spectre Five to _Phantom_ ,” she said, “we’re on the landing deck.  Ready for pick-up.”

 _“On my way, Spectre Five,”_ Hera said.  _“And I’m bringing the fleet.”_

“We have a fleet?” Zeb asked.

_“We do now.”_

Just as Hera’s words came through Sabine’s comm, the _Phantom_ flew in low over the landing platform.  Behind the ship were four winged creatures that, following Hera’s lead, swooped down over the prison, taking out some of the stormtroopers on the platform.  Hera fired twice, hitting a TIE fighter and driving more of the stormtroopers back as they rushed away from the small explosion.

The path ahead of them cleared, the four of them began to move again, heading for the _Phantom_.  As Hera opened the ship’s hatch, there was a loud whirring sound from behind them.  Kanan stopped and turned around just in time to see two bright red blades slashing through the air toward them.  The Inquisitor had made it through the doors they’d sealed behind them.  Kanan deflected the lightsaber, sending it flying off to the side before it changed direction again, called back to its owner’s hand.

Kanan leapt onto the _Phantom_ behind the rest of his team.  Once he was on board, Hera sealed the hatch and sped off into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Ezra sat on the _Ghost’s_ ramp, his knees pulled up to his chest, leaning forward against them.  He stared straight ahead, not really looking at anything.  They had made it back to Lothal without any more problems, the team was safe, but Ezra was still on edge.  The fact that they were safely back on Lothal almost made it worse.  Without imminent danger to focus on, his thoughts were free to wander back to everything he’d been worrying about for the past three weeks.

It was there that Kanan found him.  Kanan didn’t know this, but Ezra hadn’t moved in an hour.

“Are you okay?” Kanan asked.  He hadn’t thought everything that had happened would hit Ezra this hard.

For a moment, Ezra didn’t say anything.  He was surprised to realize that he actually wanted to tell Kanan what was going on.  He just didn’t know quite how to say it.

“We all could have died today,” Ezra said.  “And after what happened this morning, I never got a chance to say I was sorry about what happened.”

“Ezra, it’s okay,” Kanan said, sitting down beside him.  “We all make mistakes.”

“It’s not just that,” Ezra said.  “These past few weeks, I’ve -- I just don’t want you to think I’m not --” he pulled his knees closer to his chest and his voice dropped to a low mumble.  “That I’m not grateful or anything.”

“Ezra, I never thought that,” Kanan said.  “I know this hasn’t been easy for you, and I’m not helping as much as I should be.  I’m sorry for that.  This all really new to me, too.”

Ezra seemed to shrink in on himself, though he didn’t actually move.

“What is it?” Kanan asked, sensing something else under the surface.

Ezra’s nails dug into his skin.  Kanan waited patiently to see if he would speak.

“I’m just -- I --” Ezra could barely force the words out.  He wanted to be honest with Kanan about this, but he didn’t know if he could be.  He didn’t know how Kanan would react and just the thought of saying it made him feel like his throat was closing up.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” Kanan said.  “But whatever it is, you _can_ tell me.”

“I’m just really confused,” Ezra said.  Confused was an easier word.  “And…scared.  It’s why I haven’t been able to focus these past few weeks.”

“Why?” Kanan asked.

Ezra shut his eyes for a second as he tried to figure out how to put his anxieties into words, and if he even wanted to give voice to them in the first place.

“Ever since I got here,” he said, his speech slow and halting, “I know I’ve been -- off.  I’ve been making mistakes when we train together, and when I do, I -- I get scared that --”

He couldn’t do it.  He couldn’t finish the sentence.  Even talking about this in the first place was a mistake.  He shouldn’t have opened up.  He should have stuck to avoiding Kanan outside of training.  It would have been so much easier.  Even as he thought that, he knew it wasn’t true, but he didn’t care.

“Ezra, I would never hurt you,” Kanan said.  He reached out and gently but a hand on Ezra’s shoulder, only for the boy to flinch violently, pulling away from Kanan’s touch, his whole body tensing up, bracing himself.  He was obviously expecting Kanan to hit him.  Or worse.

“You don’t believe me, do you?” Kanan asked.

Ezra didn’t say anything, but he seemed to freeze up even more than he already had.

“It’s okay,” Kanan said.  “I understand.  After everything you’ve been through, it makes sense you’d expect to get hurt.  I just hope I can earn your trust one day.”

Ezra still said nothing.  He didn’t know how to explain that he _wanted_ to trust Kanan, but he had no idea how to let himself do that.  Kanan had been trying to help him before he even realized he needed it.  But Maul had done the same thing, taking Ezra in, training him, even protecting him.  Ezra had trusted him, and look where that had gotten him.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Kanan told him, sensing the struggle going on in Ezra’s head.  “It’s okay.”

“I --” Ezra’s voice cut off and his shoulders slumped.  “I don’t know what I could say, anyway.”

“I’m going to try harder from now on,” Kanan said.  “I promise.”

Ezra turned his head and looked up at the other Jedi.

“So will I,” he said.

“I know this isn’t easy,” Kanan said.  “But we can figure this out.  Together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was....so hard to write, you guys. the next one will be better quality, I hope.


End file.
